Denny Hecker’s old Stillwater Ford dealership on Oak Park Heights’ west side, abandoned for the past five years, will be redeveloped as a sporting goods store and shooting range.

The city council last week approved a plan by Minnesota Outdoor Shooting Sports for the store, two indoor gun ranges, a small gym and lounge, offices, storage/warehouse space and a coffee shop with patio seating.

The new business along the Minnesota 36 frontage road is expected to open sometime next year.

“We’re excited to have the building occupied again,” said Mayor Mary McComber. “It was starting to look quite blighted.”

McComber said she expects the business to do well.

“We don’t have anything like it out here,” she said.

The 56,000-square-foot car dealership, along with Hecker’s dealership at the northwest corner of Minnesota 36 and Osgood Avenue, closed when Hecker went out of business in October 2008.

In 2010, Hecker pleaded guilty of fraud related to concealing assets in his bankruptcy case and lying to secure a multimillion-dollar loan for his business.

Fury Motors has opened a Jeep dealership at the Osgood Avenue property.

The Excelsior Group bought the other Hecker site in January.

City administrator Eric Johnson said that along with approving the site plan for Minnesota Outdoor Shooting Sports, the council approved a 40-foot-high freestanding sign, which exceeds city code by 10 feet.

“The city was actively working toward a commercial redevelopment of the property, whatever that use might be,” Johnson said. “We’re happy to have the site redeveloped and look forward to a quality product on a prominent corner.”

Among the planned improvements at the site, the overhead garage doors will be removed and filled in, landscaping will be added to the parking lot and a water feature will be installed at the building’s entrance.

Mary Divine is a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She covers Washington County and the St. Croix River Valley, but has also spent time covering the state Capitol. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Premack Award and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists' Page One Award. Prior to joining the Pioneer Press in 1998, she worked for the Rochester, Minn., Post-Bulletin and at the St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines, including Mpls/St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Business Monthly and Minnesota Magazine. She is a graduate of Carleton College and lives in St. Paul with her husband, Greg Myers, and their three children, Henry, 15, Frances, 13, and Fred, 10.

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